Fleet of Foot
by SilverKitsune1
Summary: Set in CPCoulter's Dalton verse. Specifically during Blaine's life at his old high school with the Fabfive.    Erin Delaney isn't prey. At least she doesn't want to be.


This is a fic based off of another piece of Glee fanfiction called Dalton by CP Coulter (Which is wonderful, and you should read that first).

A very large thank you to my beta Tumbler user thesecondreflection!

Warning: It's not weird to write fanfiction off of fanfiction...it's not right?

Author's Note: I didn't know what Rebecca was supposed to look like (and this will probably get Jossed by the lovely creator), but I went with having her look like Angel Coulby.

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee. That's Ryan Murphy's lot in life. Nor did I invent the Fabfive, Erin Delaney or Rebecca who all belong to CPCoulter.

* * *

"I want Pam Grier's hair."

Erin was lying flat on her back on Rebecca's bed. She looked up from the biology textbook she was flipping through to acknowledge her girlfriend's announcement.

"Pam Grier's _L Word_ season one hair or _L Word_ season three hair?"

"_L Word_ season one," Rebecca said firmly.

Erin sat up and let the textbook fall to the floor. Rebecca was sprawled out next to her. Her arm pressed against Erin's, and she was close enough that Erin gave one of Rebecca's dark curls a gentle tug. "Don't you already have Pam Grier's season one hair?"

Rebecca shook her head, and the mess of curls shifted and bounced. "It can be curlier, and I would still need to dye a few of those little curls lighter brown or blonde. Not all of them, but just a few."

Erin nodded. "Do it. I'll tell people I'm dating Foxy Brown."

Rebecca sighed. "It's a nice dream, but I can't. There's a no highlighted-hair rule at school, and I'm already getting the stink-eye from a few of the girls for not 'managing' my hair better. Today one of them, nice as pie, offered to let me borrow her straightener."

"She's a bitch," Erin said."One of the girls on the track team said that she's sure I can beat my time if I lose five pounds."

"Well, isn't she a peach?" Rebecca said.

Erin folded her hands behind her head, and closed her eyes. "Yeah, I told her to bite me."

There was silence in the house. Rebecca's family was at one of her younger brother's swim meets. The mattress creaked, and Erin looked up to find Rebecca straddling her.

"I like your body," Rebecca announced. "You shouldn't change it."

Erin gently pressed the back of her hand to Rebecca's cheek. "I like your body too."

"I like my body," Rebecca said leaning down to whisper in Erin's ear. "When it's with your body. It is so quite new a thing. Muscles better and nerves more."

"The poet is on stage," Erin said, but she smiled.

Rebecca winked at her, but didn't stop talking. "I like your body. I like what it does, like its hows. I like to feel the spine of your body and its bones, and the trembling-firm-smoothness and which I will  
again and again and again- "

Erin arched up and pressed her lips against Rebecca's.

The rumor started after first period though Erin wasn't sure if she could consider it a rumor since she heard it straight from the horse's mouth.

"We're going to round up the fags, and lock them in the gym equipment closet," Jeremy Tratch said. "Get it! Do you get it?"

It wasn't the smartest of plans, but Jeremy was known for being large of muscle not clever of thought. Still, his announcement earned him a high-five and a big group laugh from the people surrounding him.

"When? When?"

"Before fifth-period lunch," Jeremy said. He patted his stomach. "I want to work up an appetite."

Erin was stupid enough to assume the plan didn't extend to her, and focused instead on the chapter they were supposed to be reading on animal classification.

_Life, Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species._

It would haunt her later. Knowing that because she'd thought she was excluded from the torment she'd been willing to leave the rest of them to survive on their own.

They probably would have caught her if Stacie Orrico hadn't started giggling against the back of her hand like some kind of drunk hyena. Erin had just shut her locker, and there was Stacie cackling away, and staring at something just over Erin's shoulder. When Erin turned she saw Jeremy flanked by Jose Perez, Matthew Aumann, and Ashley Brown.

"Don't panic," Erin said softly. "They're probably not looking for you."

Then Ashley pointed at her, and the pack of them picked up speed.

"Damn it."

Erin dropped her books and ran.

During the winter the track team practiced in-doors until the temperature came out of the negative digits. It was horrible on their knees, but it meant that Erin knew ever inch of Stanton High School.

_You want to lock me up? _she thought. _Then you had better catch me._

She could hear the boys behind her, their feet pounding hard against the linoleum as she wove throught the mass of students. Someone whistled, and then someone else cheered. Erin tried to keep from grinding her teeth. She couldn't throw off her breathing.

They passed one of the science teachers, who opened her mouth only to promptly shut it and disappear behind a classroom door.

Erin felt something inside her crack open as she ran, some hidden cash of anger and frustration that she'd been folding into a tinier and tinier shapes ever since the news that Erin Delaney liked the ladies spread through the school like wildfire. Her fury made her fly. Running for your life wasn't supposed to be enjoyable, but suddenly Erin felt wild, like a tigress chasing the wind as her lungs expanded and contracted, her hair floated around her, and her leg muscles burned.

_You can't catch me. You're too slow. _Erin took a hard left down the hallway in the direction of the music rooms.

_I like my body when it's with her body. I like kissing this and that of her. _

Erin threw the stairwell door open so hard that it crashed against the wall with a bang like a gunshot. There were students in her way, but they were shoved to the side. Pushed away like easily bent stalks of tall grass.

_You'll never get me. I'm the fastest sprinter in the region; I'll never let you._

She was reached far West end of the school, sweat running down her back and soaking her hairline when she realized that there was no one behind her – the hallways were empty. Erin slapped her hands against her thighs, the grin on her face maybe a little too big and a little too manic, and made herself walk. She couldn't cramp up. She needed to find water.

Shaking with adrenaline, and humming with triumph Erin felt so good that she rounded back to the gym equipment closet and freed the captured.

The hunt was always on, but Erin continued to evade all attempts to confine her. She should have known they'd eventually get sick of her slipping through their fingers.

One day, the hunt came without a rumor and without a warning which was unusual. Usually, the higher members of the food chain were boasting about breaking Blaine's violin or destroying everything in Micha's locker hours before they actually acted. They would never be punished, so why wouldn't they broadcast their intentions? It was after track practice, and Erin was walking to the parking lot trying to balance her books and text Rebecca at the same time. It wasn't anything more than a change in the air that let her know something was wrong. A gust of wind that came through the doors when Jeremy entered and blocked the only exit.

"Again?" Erin snapped. She shoved her phone into her pocket even as she took a sharp right down the hallway.

"Don't you have cheerleaders to impregnate?" she called over her shoulder.

At the end of the hall was the auditorium, and the East-side exit. If she could get there, she could double back once she was outside and get to her car. Jeremy was fast, but she was faster. Wind sprints and suicides were fine for football players, but nothing that could have them keeping up with a track girl.

She was tired though. Practice had been hard, and all she'd wanted to do was go home and zone out in front of the T.V. Still, Erin would have made it, if the entire thing hadn't turned out to be a trap instead of a hunt.

Erin was flying down the hallway when the first of the girls appeared. Darting out from one of the classrooms, Erin only caught sight of a swinging brown pony-tail before hands grabbed her t-shirt and pulled her to the side. Erin shook her off, and kept going. The squeaking of sneakers against the floor was getting louder, and the catcalls were closer. The second girl came from her left, and this time Erin recognized Corey Horwitz, head of the debate team as she grabbed Erin's arm and tried to drag her down.

_It's so nice to see the cliques working together for a common goal._

She shoved Corey to the ground, but Erin was starting to panic. For the first time in her life, she felt like prey. Her legs weren't muscled and toned, but willow-weed thin. Her breath wasn't even, but ragged. She wasn't balanced and flying, but clumsy and falling. She stumbled when Ashley tried to grab her hair, and Erin skidded and tripped when she tried to avoid a girl she was pretty sure came from the drama department. There were arms around her waist before she could get back on two feet.

"Get off me!" Erin howled.

Jeremy lifted her up; Erin let her feet fly forward. When her shoes connected with Ashley's stomach she almost cheered.

"Son of a bitch!" Erin cried.

Erin squirmed, but Jeremy's hold was too tight.

"Whoo!" Jeremy cried. He lifted Erin high, and shook her. "Knew we'd get you eventually!"

Erin let her head fly back. Jeremy's broken nose was worth a possible concussion.

Despite their injuries Jeremy and his little pride of girls were laughing when they deposited Erin in the equipment room. Erin had never felt so helpless and weak, so low.

"Erin?"

This wasn't supposed to happen. Her body wasn't supposed to betray her like this, and prove that she was only a thing that could be grabbed, and shoved wherever the neanderthals and queen bees deemed.

"Erin?"

She was supposed to be stronger than this. She was supposed to be fast. She was supposed to be flying!

From her spot on the floor, Erin looked up at Blaine's worried face. Blaine who had probably been locked in the equipment closet for hours. He reached forward to help her stand.

_I like my body. I like my body when it's with your body, _she silently chanted like a herself off the floor, Erin balanced on her knees as she panted. **_I like to feel the spine of your body and its bones, and the trembling -firm-smoothness_**

"Don't." She almost smacked Blaine's helping hand away. "Just-just don't. Give me a minute."

Blaine, thankfully, kept his distance.

Outside was the sound of muffled laughter. Erin heard the broom scrape against the door as it was pushed back into slammed her fist against the floor with a growl.


End file.
